DSL CONNECTIONS AT GREATER RISK FROM HACKERS

The advent of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), the information security community has warned that anyone, be they home user, remote office or business with always-on Internet connections, is at great risk of having their systems hacked – far greater than those with a simple dial-up connection. The Irish Honeynet project took some time to test this theory and concluded that, in reality, the truth, as usual, is somewhere in between. A simple Windows 2000 honeypot was placed at the end of a DSL line connected to a reputable Irish ISP for a seven-day period. Research has indicated that a computer, or a network of computers, connected by DSL is 5 times more likely to be affected by online attacks than those using dial-up connections and right from the outset The Irish Honeynet Project saw startling evidence to support this. Worms, Viruses, Trojan Horses, manual hacking attempts, automated scans, and more, were a constant feature in the daily logs of the DSL Honeynet. DSL connections do significantly increase security risks because of their always-on nature but the kinds of attacks detected on the honeypot don’t differ in any way from any other kind of Internet connection, be that a simple dial-up modem or a high-end expensive leased line connection. The Irish Honeynet Project recommends that you treat your DSL connections no differently from any other Internet connection and ensure that all the necessary security precautions are taken, such as firewalls, antivirus software, Intrusion Prevention Systems, and content filtering tools. www.honeynet.ie